Clarence led me into the mansion as soon as I arrived. I had called ahead and he stood patiently waiting at their massive parking lot of a driveway. From there, he led me through the garden’s loop and into the home.
“Hey Clarence, how did the letters arrive here?” I asked as he held the door open for me. Maybe I could backtrack whatever Courier or postal service that delivered them and get a location to track.
The old butler looked at me as he guided me along a grand staircase. “Hmm… they didn’t come with the morning mail. Unfortunately, the security cameras have been going haywire for months, otherwise, we could reroll the footage.”
“Ah, how unfortunate.” They probably came in through a Courier then. Whoever sent the letters obviously had enough money to afford a Courier several times a week, so they likely weren’t poor. Those bastards charged an arm and a leg for their services.
We moved down a hallway to a rather sturdy-looking door plated in white with gold accents. His hand lightly rapped across the surface. “Sir? Lady Ichima is here to see you.”
“Enter.” Mr. Abernathy’s voice vibrated through the surface like it wasn’t even there.
Clarence opened the door, allowing me in. As soon as I stepped through the threshold, he closed it and backed away.
Behind the door sat a grand study. It was closer to the few public libraries I had visited than any study I had seen. Bookshelves sat everywhere housing books that looked as if they predated WWIII.
The man himself sat behind a desk, looking about as ancient as the books on the shelves. A terminal, this one see-through, sat on the desk as Mr. Abernathy typed away. “Please, take a seat.” His kind voice said though he didn’t even look up as he finished up whatever he was working on.
I slid in across the desk from him, finding the chair to be rather comfortable. It was the exact opposite of the one in the deceitful drawing room. I sat there, looking around the room as I waited patiently for Mr. Abernathy to finish up whatever it was he was working on.
After several minutes, he let out a sigh and closed down the terminal. “Sorry about that… the company doesn’t know what vacation hours are.” He said with a joking smile. The corners of his eyes crinkled in a subtle Cue, showing his smile to either be genuine or crazy good acting.
“No problem, sir.”
“Nova…” He leaned forward, leaning over the desk. “Have you found anything yet?”
“Yes sir. I’ve eliminated a few suspects and found the perpetrator. He seemed to have been directed to send you the letters by another person though.” I didn’t directly say who it was, fearful that Mr. Abernathy might take his irritation about the letters out on him. The guy could still prove to be useful, and I didn’t want a pawn taken away so soon.
Albert Abernathy smiled broadly and leaned back in his chair, looking as if a thousand-pound weight moved off his shoulders. “Nova! This- this mastermind though… do you have any clues?”
“‘Course, sir. Do you know anyone whose name starts with a J?” I asked.
The man leaned forward onto the desk and tapped on his chin. “My secretary is named Jennifer… There's also Jerreca, the CEO’s daughter. I’ve met her a few times, but she is around your age.”
“This secretary… she been with you for a long time? Or have a reason to get rid of you?” Technically, the letters only requested money, but it wasn’t far-fetched to think the end game was to get rid of Mr. Abernathy.
He gazed out at the study, his eyes growing slightly distant. “It’s going on twenty-six years now? She became my secretary back when I was just a foreman, and I highly doubt she would want to get rid of me.”
Could be the secretary, but why try to blackmail her boss? After showing loyalty for twenty-six years, getting rid of her boss would be like removing the ground she walked on. Maybe not Jennifer then… Jerraca could be the one, but it was doubtful for the same reason as the CEO. There were far easier ways to get rid of someone. Permanently.
As for whether this Jerraca had access to those means? Most definitely. It was best not to underestimate someone, especially not the daughter of ASCorp’s CEO. Although they were slightly in decline in recent years, they were and have continued to be one of the most trusted brands for over a century. Arkhanika’s Standard Corporation had some serious firepower for sure.
“Can you-”
The door burst open behind me, cutting me off mid-sentence. A woman marched through, fire in her eyes as she glared at me. “Hiring a new maid, Albert?”
“Darling, I was just in the middle of a business discussion… Ah, Zuku, this is my wife, Yasmine.” The man waved his hand towards the fuming woman, completely missing the cues of rage. It was almost impressive how oblivious he was.
“Pleasure, ma’am.” I offered my hand, trying to be polite.
She glared at my hand like I was a rat trying to touch her ‘fair’ skin. “A business discussion? Really? With a little twelve-year-old? Why are you lying, Albert? Or is this business related to her being a flat backer? I’m disgusted.”
I leaned back in my chair, taken back by the pure hostility seeming to pour from her every pore. What was worse? Being called a kid not even into their teenage years? Maybe being called a prostitute? Or maybe even being called a detestable word like ‘little’?
None of the above, in my opinion. The worst offense coming from the woman was to Mr. Abernathy. To think his own wife was accusing him not only of being a john, but a pedo to boot. Personally, I wouldn’t let that stand.
Mr. Abernathy, though, just flashed a kind smile at the woman as he winced. “Darling, can we talk about this another time? This is a really important matter.”
“It’s always another time!” The woman threw her hands in the air and stomped over to the door. “Fuck you, Harlot! I hope you choke on my husband’s-”
“Enough!” Mr. Abernathy raised his voice, for once losing his kind demeanor.
His wife harrumphed and strode out of the door, ending her tirade with one last call. “Filthy flatbacker.”
“Sorry about that. Yasmine has always been the type to jump to conclusions.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
Honestly, I didn’t care too much what the woman said. I had been called worse before, and by people who mattered quite a bit more. At least, at that time. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Still, that woman… Anyway, is there anything else I can help you with? The sooner this is taken care of, the better.” Mr. Abernathy’s eyebrows knitted together. “If some of my opponents caught wind of this, it could prove to be disastrous considering the timing.”
“The timing?” I asked.
He nodded his head. “Yeah, the CEO is holding an 'election' for the new President of the company amongst all the top brass this month. It's been a bloodbath as everyone tries to discredit the other.”
Interesting. I can definitely see how being blackmailed would be bad. ‘Course, it wasn’t bad that he did something, rather that he left enough evidence to be blackmailed about it. Maybe that was why he hired out for this one? To avoid having a paper trail in the company? “I see…”
Mr. Abernathy’s head dropped slightly, though he kept his kind smile the best he could. “Yeah…you said you found the one actually sending the letters though?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good…” Relief flashed across his face. “Ah, my family doesn’t know about this matter. You mind if we keep it that way? Wouldn’t want to scare Yasmine or Cole, my son.”
“No problem.” Hopefully, this matter will be resolved anyway. As things stand, my current solution to finding the mastermind was to simply ask them to meet up. Not through my phone, ‘course, but through Mr. Kerátas’s phone through his computer’s backdoor.
My cover was already blown though… It would look strange if I showed up again, and unnecessary suspicion never did anyone good. Rather, it did the victims good, just not me. Hmm… well, I could always sneak in.
I returned to the ASCorp Bricktown Supermarket with high spirits. I already knew from last time just how dire the situation here was. They couldn’t keep up with the robots, let alone the actual security systems.
With that in consideration, I entered the building through the front door. Then, it was as easy as sneaking past the guy watching it, who was distracted by a robot’s oil spill, and heading into the store proper.
The occasional bot gave me a small fright, but I made my way to the Robotics Garage unmolested. Rather, mostly unmolested. There was that unfortunate situation where a robot tried to spew on me, though I managed to dodge the jets of oil. Whoever set that up had a seriously devious mind.
The store looked moderately worse as I walked through it. Whereas there might’ve been a few bots still busy cleaning up the last time I was here, now there were none. Every robot seemed to be in the same state of chaos, making a right mess of the whole place.
The garage door was open, so I slipped inside with Perks active. All the workers were busy, well, working, so no one even noticed me as I worked my way around the room and to the office. I stayed low and listened intently through the office’s door. Dead silent.
A quick glance around revealed nobody had even noticed me, so I picked the lock on the door and slid into the office. It was dark, but my flesh eye rapidly adjusted to the darkness, leaving me still capable of vision even as my chrome one failed me. It was definitely odd considering my night vision had never been all too good.
Moving to the laptop still set up on the desk, I wasted no time waking it up from sleep mode and going to the backdoor messaging. Since I had last checked, several messages had gone between them, professing the love between J and K. Rather, the love from Mr. Keratás to J. J, for their part, remained mostly indifferent for some reason.
Anyway, I sent a text to J from the backdoor. ‘My love, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you last. Can we meet up soon?’
I searched around on the computer as I waited, and a reply soon arrived. ‘It has only been three weeks though.’
What would a hopeless fanatic say in this situation? Hmm… ‘Yet every passing second without you is agonizing. You bring life to my drab day, enlightening my heart with love.’
‘Fine. Come to Fisher’s Diner tonight, I’ll be there. Oh, and don’t tell anyone. Can’t risk the heat.’ The reply was cold, almost heartlessly so.
‘Okay, my love.’ I sent back to J. Then, just to make sure nothing went wrong, I deleted the messages and made it look as if nothing happened. I also sent a message to Clarence to tell Mr. Abernathy I had managed to set up a meeting.
Now to get out of here. I stood up from the desk-
The door rattled, and voices came from outside. Without enough time to think of how stupid it was, I slid under the desk and pressed myself out of the way. A second later, I heard the door crack open.
Mr. Keratás’s voice came from just outside of my vision. “-don’t care. The Netrunner will be here in an hour. We can’t screw this up, or corporations will have our heads. My head. They’re already breathing down my neck since that Crusader started poking around.”
An unfamiliar voice spoke up. “I’m sorry, sir. There are just too many out there, and they aren’t responding. We’ll have to send out all the men to wrangle them up.”
“Fine! Just get it done. Now!”
“Sir!” The sound of boots tapping the floor echoed as the door closed. I was so, so tempted to peek my head out and check the area, but rationality barely managed to hold me in the small alcove under the desk.
A sigh came just as a set of legs stepped into my view.
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